Camellia is one of the typical winter flowers in Japan and from
ancient time people have enjoyed it. It is native to Japan and apparently
European people who visited Japan found it in 17th century and introduced to
Europe.
The top season of the camellia flowers is February, so it is already the end of the season. Then, now it is common to see in towns the fallen whole camellia flowers spreading around the tree like in this photo. This is one of camellia’s characteristic, it doesn’t scatter the petals and the whole flowers fell down at the end.
With this characteristic, there is a false rumor that Samurai people had hated this flower because it reminded them of beheading, the worst execution for them, but many of Samurai lords actually loved this flower and enjoyed to improve this plant.
Besides, regarding the Tea Ceremony, which is loved by Samurai people as a hobby, it is called “the queen flower of the Tea Ceremony” because it is used for the decoration of the Tea Ceremony most of the time throughout February since it is difficult to find beautiful flowers in the season.
Moreover, people have been using the camellia seed oil a lot, too, for cooking oil, hair liquid, and so on. Especially hair care products made from the oil have been trusted by many women and actually traditional wooden combs are soaked in the oil when they are produced.
So, there are a lot of connections between this flower and Japanese culture.
The top season of the camellia flowers is February, so it is already the end of the season. Then, now it is common to see in towns the fallen whole camellia flowers spreading around the tree like in this photo. This is one of camellia’s characteristic, it doesn’t scatter the petals and the whole flowers fell down at the end.
With this characteristic, there is a false rumor that Samurai people had hated this flower because it reminded them of beheading, the worst execution for them, but many of Samurai lords actually loved this flower and enjoyed to improve this plant.
Besides, regarding the Tea Ceremony, which is loved by Samurai people as a hobby, it is called “the queen flower of the Tea Ceremony” because it is used for the decoration of the Tea Ceremony most of the time throughout February since it is difficult to find beautiful flowers in the season.
Moreover, people have been using the camellia seed oil a lot, too, for cooking oil, hair liquid, and so on. Especially hair care products made from the oil have been trusted by many women and actually traditional wooden combs are soaked in the oil when they are produced.
So, there are a lot of connections between this flower and Japanese culture.
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